Tremble with fear, Yankee imperialist dogs!

But at least I can now look back on a certain record of achievement on this particular subject. No sooner have I intimated that Cuba’s allegedly splendiferous health-care and education statistics were probably a crock, then up pops cast-iron confirmation courtesy of this hilarious bit of fawnography in the Guardian:

Which only goes to reinforce what has long been obvious: that US hostility to Cuba does not stem from the regime’s human rights failings, but its social and political successes and the challenge its unyielding independence offers to other US and western satellite states. Saddled with a siege economy and a wartime political culture for more than 40 years, Cuba has achieved first world health and education standards in a third world country, its infant mortality and literacy rates now rivalling or outstripping those of the US, its class sizes a third smaller than in Britain.

Which goes a long way to explaining why untold numbers of Americans are risking their lives every year in order to escape from America and get a better life in Cuba.

Untold numbers of Cubans flee the island every year, trying to cross to nearby Florida – including via a truck turned into a raft this week.

Have these ‘untold numbers’ of Cubans all gone stark, raving mad? Who, in their right minds, would want to risk being eaten by sharks in order to get away from first-class health-care and education? Don’t these insane Cubans realise just how poor, miserable, stupid and sick they are going to be in America?

Some ungrateful people just don’t deserve ‘social and political successes’.

July 31st, 2003 |

22 comments to Tremble with fear, Yankee imperialist dogs!

I’m willing to bet that a dispropotionate number of those fleeing Cuba are black. I spent time in Cuba about 25 years ago, and my most striking impression was how blacks were segregated in what were clearly slums – unpaved roads, water from standpipes, dilapedated buildings, etc. And *everyone* in any kind of authority was white.

Of course, the mere notion that Cuba is stuck in a racist 1950’s timewarp is absolutely taboo on the Left.

The standard bleat from the left is that the ones who leave do so for selfish economic reasons. It is of course of the preponderance of yacht clubs on the island. There are so many in fact, that they have trouble teaching celestial navigation to all the budding sailors, and this is why some of them end up in Florida.

BTW and off topic, I posted yesterday about DARPA’s terror futures market and it’s free market rival tradesports.com. Boy are they quick off the mark, they now have a futures trade on how long Poindexter will remain in charge of DARPA. Ya gotta just love private enterprise.

This topic is really like shooting fish in a barrell. Phil’s comment about Cuban racism is quite interesting though I don’t know if correlates with those leaving the island. From what little I know, the immigrants make up the entire spectrum.

And Seinfeld definately had a time making fun of communists like when Elaine dated that a communist who wanted to unionize all the shopping mall Santa Clauses. Good stuff.

Would it pain the Guardian so much to admit that Cuba was already at First World levels of wealth BEFORE Castro’s takeover, which has only made Cuba poorer relative to other Central and South American countries? (Yeah, it’s better off than Haiti. It’s hard not to be, actually.)

The other standard lefty line on Cuba is that all the economic woes can be laid at the feet of the American embargo (cf “siege economy”). Since America is the only country that won’t trade with Cuba, this has always struck me as implausible. Does anyone know of any serious analysis of this topic?

R.C. Dean, in the early 1990’s I read a newspaper article about a congressional study concerning what the U.S. embargo costs Cuba. The estimate was that it costs them about $100 million a year. This was mostly the result of added shipping costs (from Europe vs. from the U.S., for example). You could try and find a homepage for the U.S. House of Representatives and see if they have their congressional studies on-line. If not, call your local congressman/woman and DEMAND a copy of the study. (Hey, they are your paid employees, you are allowed to treat them like your personal butt-monkeys.)

In summary, originally most were white/middle class/affluent. There is a clear trend towards more working class and black migrants.

I found this article
describing a (Left-wing) black Americans experiences in Cuba.

Which obviously spooked the Left enough to prompt this rambling and at times quite funny response, which concludes by accusing the author of the first article, not too subtly of being in fact right-wing and therefore necessarily racist, and then appealing to the highest authority on the black Left – saint Nelson Mandela.

John Derbyshire said, “Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free healthcare and 100 percent literacy.”

Cuba does not have a Universal Health Care, just health care for the party, and those that live in Havana. Remeber they shot down an American plane when it was delevering medical supplies a few years back to the many Cubans that don’t have access to medical care. The people that keep saying that it does have a world class medical system take it from the offical statments of the Gov. Independent evaluations say different. I will bet these are the same people who took “Comical Ali” at his every word.

Whilst the response is rambling, and amusing from the moonbattery sense, I think we need to examine the mind set of these people. Quote from the response about what will happen when the revolution comes to America.

“With millions of whites influenced in varying degrees by racism, how would we retrain them. Do we kill everyone that does not agree with the revolution? While some bloodshed will be inevitable, after the seizure of power, are we prepared to put millions of people before the firing squads or do we figure out ways to maintain the revolution and deal with them?”

EB: You are right, its only funny if you understand how ludicrously cliched it is. I especially liked – ‘In fact, Cuba in 1990 had better all around living standards than any other country (and some regions within countries) of color in the world, other than Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.’ Countries of color – thats a new one. I’m sure my friends in Singapore, Japan and HK will be happy to learn they live in ‘countries of color’.

Interesting the response totally ignores the most obvious part of the original article. Namely, in Castro’s Cuba, foreigners get treated a lot better than Cubans. I would also note, that the black America author assumes he will be treated with dignity and respect and is shocked to find that in Cuba he isn’t, because he is mistaken for a Cuban.

The letter from the African-American leftist about his treatment in Cuba echoes the memoirs of Eldridge Cleaver’s stint in Cuba.

Cleaver stated that Cuba was more racist toward blacks than the US, and he was so disgusted by what he found there that he returned to the US to become a conservative Republican and, of all things, a Mormon.

BTW, Forbes magazine recently reported that Castro is wealthier than royal family of Holland. Considering that the royal family owns a big chunk of Shell Oil Company, that must be one well-heeled Commie dictator!

Regarding the Guardian article, just sad and pathetic. Communism murdered tens of millions of people and caused untold misery to hundreds of millions. But hey, that is nothing — look at the literacy rates in Cuba! Raise that tattered red flag proudly.

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